Amateur astronomy?

[NICSAK]

Where in northern Wisconsin? I live in Appleton

 

[FRITZHID]

Where in northern Wisconsin? I live in Appleton

I'll be near Rhinelander

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I remember growing up my dad got into astronomy a little and spent hours at night on the front lawn looking at the stars. He even got some special paint to dip light bulbs in and made a dim red light so he could see to write and read things but not destroy his night vision. He taught me how to tell time using the big dipper I could tell you what time it was without a clock within 15 minutes but I've pretty much forgotten how to do it now. With useful dimmable LED technology I often wonder now if my dad was still alive would he be out there with an LED light taking notes under the stars.

 

[bykfixer]

My brother used to have this cardboard disc covered with the stars that could glow in the dark. It had a cover disc that covered 270° of the circle so you would only expose your particular hemisphere. You rotated the cover based on the time of year iirc.
If you pulled it out of a lit enviornment or shined a flashlight on it the stars glowed 10-15 minutes.

That thing sure was a good tool. He had some 'hobby' grade scopes and gear. Back then there was a lot less light pollution where we live back then.

Nowadays unless you do a trek for an hour in a car, the only stars you can see are the brightest of the bright.

For that reason we generally don't bother anymore.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

The Perseids are known for being colorful - rainbow colored.

For future reference?

A link to Arkansas Sky Observatories, describing Perseids. The second page speaks briefly about the colors and chemical composition.

http://arksky.org/aso/aso-guides/as...ut-meteors-the-perseid-meteor-shower?showall=

 

[Kestrel]

One holiday gift to me this year is going to be a magazine subscription on astronomy, so am thinking "Sky @ Telescope" after a brief review of (what else), the usual forum message boards about 'which astronomy magazine is best for beginners', lol.

And of course, today being the shortest day of the year; and a whole day of gloomy Oregon fog with zero sunshine. :-/